Will the Tampa Bay Rays run wild on the Angels?

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The Tampa Bay running game against Angels catching would not seem to be a favorable matchup for the home team in the three-game series between the teams that starts Monday night in Angel Stadium.

The Rays, who at 22-9 have baseball’s best record, rank third in the American League with 29 stolen bases; Mike Napoli, who will start behind the plate for the Angels tonight, has thrown out only two of 24 base-stealers this season, a success rate of 8.3%.

‘You’ve got to keep those lead guys off base,’ said Angels catcher Jeff Mathis, who is on the disabled list because of a broken bone in his right wrist. ‘They manufacture runs and run the bases well.’

Though the Seattle Mariners were successful on all four stolen-base attempts against Napoli on Sunday, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia was encouraged by Napoli’s ‘glove-to-glove’ time of 1.88 seconds on his last throw to second. An above-average time from a ball hiting the catcher’s glove to the covering infielder’s glove is about 1.90 seconds, Scioscia said.

‘What’s concerning with Mike is his tendency to rush when he senses a guy gets a good jump,’ Scioscia said. ‘When a guy runs, he has to trust his arm, trust that he’s going to make an accurate throw. Hopefully, he found something with that last throw [Sunday].’

One thing working in the Angels’ favor Monday night: Rays center fielder B.J. Upton, who shares the team lead in stolen bases with Carl Crawford at seven, returned to Tampa/St. Petersburg for the birth of a child Monday and is not expected back until Tuesday night’s game, at the earliest.

--Mike DiGiovanna